A Child's Garden of Verses

2025-07-25T20:03:16Z

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{{Short description|1885 poetry collection by Robert Louis Stevenson}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2021}}
{{infobox book | 
| name = A Child's Garden of Verses
| image = A Child's Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson, first edition Longmans, Green, 1885.png
| caption = First edition cover
| author = [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]
| language = English
| genre = Poetry collection
| publisher = [[Longman|Longmans, Green, & Co]]<ref name="AbeBooks">{{Cite web |title = A Child's Garden of Verses| url=https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30858785411&searchurl=fe%3Don%26n%3D100121503%26bi%3Dh%26sortby%3D1%26tn%3DA%2BChild%2527s%2BGarden%2Bof%2BVerses%26an%3Dstevenson&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image7 |access-date=4 April 2021 |website=Abe Books}}</ref>
| pub_date = 1885<ref name="AbeBooks" />
| pages = 101<ref name="AbeBooks" />
| wikisource = A Child's Garden of Verses
}}
[[File:A Child’s Garden of Verses , Fassung von 1916.jpg|thumb|Title page of a 1916 US edition]]

'''''A Child's Garden of Verses''''' is an 1885 volume of 64 poems for children by the Scottish author [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]. It has been reprinted many times, often in illustrated versions, and is considered to be one of the most influential children's works of the 19th century.<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite web|last=Kuiper|first=Kathleen|date=23 March 2011|title=A Child's Garden of Verses|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/A-Childs-Garden-of-Verses|url-status=live|access-date=9 April 2021|website=Britannica|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150801004632/http://www.britannica.com:80/topic/A-Childs-Garden-of-Verses |archive-date=1 August 2015 }}</ref> The poems, which have been widely imitated, are written from the point of view of a child. Stevenson dedicated the collection to his childhood nurse, Alison Cunningham.<ref name="Britannica" />

==Contents==
[[File:A Little Book for A Little Cook, image 13.jpg|thumb|One of the poems, "Happy Thought", as used in ''A Little Book for A Little Cook'', 1905]]

===A Child's Garden of Verses===
{{div col}}
* "Bed in Summer"
* "A Thought"
* "At the Sea-side"
* "Young Night Thought"
* "Whole Duty of Children"
* "Rain"
* "Pirate Story"
* "Foreign Lands"
* "Windy Nights"
* "Travelling"
* "Singing"
* "Looking Forward"
* "A Good Play"
* "Where Go the Boats?"
* "Auntie's Skirts"
* "The Land of Counterpane"
* "The Land of Nod"
* "[[My Shadow (poem)|My Shadow]]"
* "System"
* "A Good Boy"
* "Escape at Bedtime"
* "Marching Song"
* "The Cow"
* "Happy Thought"
* "The Wind"
* "Keepsake Mill"
* "Good and Bad Children"
* "Foreign Children"
* "The Sun's Travels"
* "[[The Lamplighter (poem)|The Lamplighter]]"
* "My Bed Is a Boat"
* "The Moon"
* "The Swing"
* "Time to Rise"
* "Looking-glass River"
* "Fairy Bread"
* "[[From a Railway Carriage]]"
* "Winter-time"
* "The Hayloft"
* "Farewell to the Farm"
* "Northwest Passage: Good Night, Shadow March, In Port"
{{end div col}}

===The Child Alone===
{{div col}}
* "The Unseen Playmate"
* "My Ship and I"
* "My Kingdom"
* "Picture-books in Winter"
* "My Treasures"
* "Block City"
* "The Land of Story-books"
* "Armies in the Fire"
* "The Little Land"
{{end div col}}

===Garden Days===
{{div col}}
* "Night and Day"
* "Nest Eggs"
* "The Flowers"
* "Summer Sun"
* "The Dumb Soldier"
* "Autumn Fires"
* "The Gardener"
* "Historical Associations"
{{end div col}}

===Envoys===
{{div col}}
* "To Willie and Henrietta"
* "To My Mother"
* "To Auntie"
* "To Minnie"
* "To My Name-child"
* "To Any Reader"
{{end div col}}

==Publication==
Inspired by a children's book of 1880, the collection was originally to be called ''Penny Whistles''<ref name="Britannica" /> but was ultimately published by [[Longman|Longmans, Green, & Co]] in 1885 as ''A Child's Garden of Verses.''<ref name="AbeBooks" />

==Adaptations==
* In 1922, the classical scholar [[Terrot Reaveley Glover]] published a translation of the poems into [[Latin language|Latin]] under the title ''Carmina non prius audita de ludis et hortis virginibus puerisque''.<ref>{{cite web|title=A child's garden of verses|url=https://archive.org/stream/childsgardenofve01stevuoft|access-date=31 August 2017|website=Archive.org}}</ref>
*[[Walt Disney Records|Disneyland Records]] released an [[LP record]] of the poems set to music. This was the first title for the newly created Disney record label. Gwyn Conger wrote the music, which was performed by Francis Archer and Beverly Gile.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Johnson|first1=Jimmy|title=The Disneyland Records Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4AgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34-IA2|access-date=March 9, 2015|magazine=Billboard|date=March 27, 1971|page=D-2}}</ref>
* The Italian composer Carlo Deri composed, in 2005, a song for voice and piano, ''The Unseen Playmate'', on Stevenson's poem. This song is also included in Deri's one-act opera ''[[Markheim]]'' (2008).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.teatrodipisa.pi.it/lestagioni/cal-opera/130-don-giovanni/event_details|title=Carlo Deri – Markheim|website=Teatrodioisa.pi.it|access-date=31 August 2017}}</ref>
* The Lithuanian composer Giedrius Alkauskas (born 1978) arranged five poems—"The Wind" (two alternative arrangements), "Rain", "Singing", "Marching Song", and "At the Sea-side"—as a six-song cycle, ''A Child's Garden of Songs'', for mezzo-soprano, piano, and trumpet in B{{music|flat}}, which was released in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://imslp.org/wiki/A_Child%27s_Garden_of_Songs_(Alkauskas,_Giedrius)|title=Score of "A Child's Garden of Songs" on IMSLP|website=Imslp.org|access-date=31 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvzX_wNEDrXAJ7JfWCkmL0_x5yyT71YTj|title=Recordings of the cycle "A Child's Garden of Songs"|publisher=[[YouTube]]|access-date=31 August 2017}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Poetry |Children's literature}}
* {{librivox book | title=A Child's Garden of Verses | author=Robert Louis Stevenson}}
* {{Gutenberg | no=28722 | name=A Child's Garden of Verses }}

{{Robert Louis Stevenson}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Child's Garden of Verses}}
[[Category:Poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson]]
[[Category:English poetry collections]]
[[Category:1885 children's books]]
[[Category:1885 poetry books]]
[[Category:British children's books]]
[[Category:Children's poetry books]]

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A Child's Garden of Verses